


Is Neil Fucking Josten Worth It?

by Rory_writes



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Aaron Minyard isn't straight, Angst, Bisexual Aaron Minyard, F/M, Family, Family Feels, He's also kind of a jerk, Healing, M/M, Other, POV Aaron Minyard, Therapy, twinyards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27008917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rory_writes/pseuds/Rory_writes
Summary: You know that therapy session where Aaron made Andrew fight for Neil, outing his relationship to Betsy while he was at it?Yeah? That's what this is.
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard, Betsy Dobson & Aaron Minyard, Betsy Dobson & Andrew Minyard, Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 22
Kudos: 310
Collections: All for the Game Fics





	Is Neil Fucking Josten Worth It?

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't get it out of my head until I'd written it so here you go, you can have it if you want idc.

Aaron and Andrew sat turned to face each other on the couch in Betsy’s office, arms folded and glaring. Their sessions with Betsy went the same every week; she asked them how they were, then asked them what they wanted to talk about, they started talking, fought, then within fifteen minutes lapsed into aggravated silence and stared at each other until Betsy decided they weren’t going to sort it out themselves and started guiding the conversation. Aaron wasn’t sure how much was getting solved, especially because they hadn’t tackled anything overly big yet. They hadn’t talked about Katelyn or his mom or their stupid deal. However, they had talked about the past few years being raised by Nicky, what they’d both thought and felt during their high school years in the Columbia house. They’d also touched on their differing childhoods and upbringings, while Betsy navigated their talk about their feelings and helped them understand how their different upbringings had impacted (see: traumatised) them so that they could understand each other better as well as themselves. Aaron had found out pretty quickly that Andrew had a bit of a head-start in that department. He wouldn’t have said before they started these sessions that Andrew was the more well-adjusted twin, but he was the only one out of the two of them who had accepted and come to terms with his trauma, sexuality and grief, while Aaron had just ignored his. Granted, Andrew had reached his limit and broken into pieces years ago and Betsy had been helping him put those pieces back together. Aaron hadn’t broken, he’d definitely shrivelled up and learnt to become and feel nothing if he needed to, but he hadn’t been shattered by his life. Betsy was, against his better judgement, helping him accept what he’d been through and feel more in control of his life than he’d felt in years.  
Still, that didn’t change their glaring contest here and now. Andrew’s nostrils were flared, which Aaron had learnt recently meant that he wasn’t just angry, but he was hurt as well. Something Aaron had said in their argument at the start of the session had hurt him, which was probably why they’d dissolved into silence. _You never actually cared about me! You just wanted to control me, like everyone else!_ It may have been a little harsher than Aaron had meant it to be, especially because he wasn’t even sure he believed it anymore. He definitely had believed it at one point. For three years he’d convinced himself that Andrew didn’t care about him and just wanted Aaron to be a puppet bent to his will. These past few months of sessions with Betsy had started unravelling that belief slowly. Andrew was dysfunctional, unpredictable and more damaged than Aaron had yet to understand, but he cared. The anger was real, the apathy and the soullessness that he associated with his twin was not. It was a mask, a carefully curated safety net or wall that kept his anger at bay and protected him from more harm. He cared deeper than Aaron had expected him capable of and as hesitant as Aaron was, he was starting to suspect Andrew even loved. Despite it all, Andrew had the capacity to love. And Aaron was so angry at him, because if he did understand love then how could he keep his rule, his word, against Katelyn? If he cared about Aaron, if he knew what love was, why would he insist on enforcing it and hurting him over, and over, again?

“Do you believe that, Aaron?” Betsy asked, breaking the silence in the room with her placating, soft voice. “Do you believe that Andrew doesn’t care about you?”

“No,” Aaron spat, hating the taste of the confession in his mouth. He saw the subtle shift in Andrew, the slight tension easing out of his shoulders and he stopped flaring his nostrils. Aaron couldn’t believe that he’d started paying enough attention to his brother to notice the changes in his body language.

“What is it that you actually want to talk about, Aaron? If it isn’t Andrew’s feelings towards you as his brother, what is it?” Betsy guided. Aaron gritted his teeth, still glaring at Andrew who had his head tilted in question.

“Katelyn,” he said. He watched the shutters go down behind Andrew’s eyes and Aaron wanted to hit him. “I mean it. I want to talk about her.”

“Boohoo,” Andrew dismissed mockingly. Another thing Aaron resented himself for learning about Andrew was that his brother used mocking and sarcasm to hide behind.

“Don’t dismiss me, Andrew!” He snapped, but Andrew was gone. He’d retreated into himself; he wasn’t even looking at Aaron anymore. He’d turned his body and his attention on Betsy as if she would offer him leave from the conversation.

“Andrew, why don’t you want to talk about Katelyn?” Betsy asked, ever the unbiased diplomat.

“Traitor,” Andrew growled at her, crossing his arms again.

“You know that inside these sessions I am a neutral force,” she reminded him. “Will you answer my question?”

“No,” Andrew said. Aaron sighed noisily, annoyance surging under his skin.

“You’re impossible!” He half-shouted at Andrew who just turned to glare at him again. Aaron didn’t want to sit in silence for a second time, he wanted this to make sense. He wanted to get angry at Andrew for what he was doing, and he wanted it to be resolved.  
“Fuck you!” It was probably not the most eloquent of continuing sentences, but he felt a little better for it.

“No, fuck you, Aaron,” Andrew shot back. “We had a deal; you stick by me and I protect you. So, fuck you for breaking that! Is she even worth all of this?” He looked livid; the scary kind of anger that usually made Aaron shrink away. Not this time, because Aaron was angry too. He could feel it boiling inside him, hot and corrosive.

“Is Neil fucking Josten worth it?” Aaron yelled at him, finally laying his trump card down on the table. Andrew froze and Aaron took some satisfaction in that. He smiled, and as cruel as it may have been, he couldn’t help it. “Yeah, I said it. You can bitch and moan about the deal we made when we were sixteen, but I’m not the only one breaking it.”

“Shut up,” Andrew growled.

“No, I won’t,” Aaron said. “Have you even told Dr. Dobson about your little thing with Josten?”

“I said shut up!” Andrew ground out between his teeth. Aaron noted that he still hadn’t moved, eyes a little wider than they had been before. He was stuck. He was trapped in a situation of his own making.

“Josten dragged Katelyn into this, told her to make me fight for her. Here I am and I want to fight for her Andrew, but I don’t have to. Instead, you asshole, I am asking you the same question. Is he worth all of this?”

“Stop talking.”

“Will you give him up? You want me to let go of Katelyn, right? Then you need to let go of Neil too,” Aaron said. He wasn’t yelling anymore. He felt tired. Tired of fighting for this, tired of not knowing what to do or what to expect. Nicky believed Andrew and Neil were just hate fucking, but Aaron could see that it was more than that. Even now, with Andrew’s anxiety freezing him in place because he’d just outed his relationship to Betsy, Aaron could see it was more. Andrew was staring down the barrel of a gun right now, but he was the only one holding the trigger. “I want Katelyn in my life, Andrew. Don’t make me give her up, because I will make you give up Neil.” He knew it was probably a spiteful thing to say, but he meant it. If Andrew was going to stubbornly hold on to their childish deal made during desperate, uncontrollable, awful times, then Aaron would make sure he held onto all of it and they would suffer together just like they had then. Andrew’s breathing was short and sharp, his jaw clenched so tight Aaron could see the muscles working as he ground his teeth, his fists curled so tight his knuckles were white. Aaron waited, but he knew that somehow, he’d won.

“I hate you,” Andrew said, voice thick with venom. Aaron smiled again and leaned back into the couch.

“Can’t do it can you? Can’t break it off with your boyfriend to justify me breaking up with Katelyn,” he said.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Andrew growled. Aaron rolled his eyes because that was seriously not the point.

“Whatever,” he dismissed.

“I. Hate. You,” Andrew said again.

“Do you hate him?” Betsy asked, making them both jolt. They’d forgotten that she was there, or at least Aaron had, and he flicked his gaze to the psychiatrist. She had watched that altercation silently, but as she spoke now, Aaron could see that she was trying not to hide a smile. “Do you hate Aaron? All he’s done is ask you to choose, just like you were asking him to.”

“Yes,” Andrew grumbled, but he wouldn’t look her in the eye.

“I understand that you’ve felt hurt by what you’ve considered Aaron’s abandonment with him choosing his relationship with Katelyn,” she began, which was news to Aaron and his stomach clenched painfully at her words.

“Andrew, I wasn’t abandoning you,” he said, hating how choked the words sounded. “You making me choose was what was pushing me away. I don’t want to not be your brother. I’m here because I do want to be your brother.”

“You are here because of _her,_ ” Andrew sneered.

“Not quite,” Aaron sneered back. “Yeah, she’s the one who told me to get my shit together, but if I didn’t want to I wouldn’t.”

“Whatever.” Andrew rolled his eyes.

“As I was saying,” Betsy said. “You considered it abandonment when Aaron wanted to choose Katelyn, but you’ve just made the same choice. You’ve chosen your relationship- don’t interrupt, it is a relationship however you label it- but are you turning your back on Aaron at the same time?”

“No,” Andrew muttered. Aaron wasn’t sure how that made him feel, but it was warm nonetheless.

“No,” Betsy agreed, smiling for the first time this session. “You can be brothers to each other, and have your romantic- or otherwise, Andrew, I get that you don’t want to label it- relationships as well. It’s something we can work on in these sessions.”

“Okay,” Aaron agreed. There was silence for a moment, neither of them expecting Andrew to agree or disagree.

“I want to speak to her first,” Andrew said into the silence. Aaron met Betsy’s gaze in alarm, and he could see that even she was hesitating.

“Okay…” she said carefully. “Will you leave your knives with me before you do?”

“No,” Andrew said with a small curl of his lips.

“Andrew, I swear to God,” Aaron warned, willing to die fighting his brother if it stopped him stabbing his girlfriend.

“Relax,” Andrew said with an annoyed huff. “I’m not giving you my knives, you won’t give them back,” he said to Betsy. “And I will find a way to not stab your girlfriend,” he added, turning on Aaron.

“Thank you,” Aaron hedged, still wary.

“For you, not her. I don’t care about her,” Andrew pressed. Aaron raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay, still, thank you,” he said, genuinely meaning it. He didn’t know if he really could trust him, but he wanted to try. “So, I can stay with Katelyn? Like, properly?”

“Yes, no more hiding in the library,” Andrew said, shaking his head. Aaron had figured Andrew knew about the sneaking around in the library, but having it confirmed still made him feel uncomfortable.

“You can keep Neil behind closed doors, thank you very much,” Aaron teased, giving Andrew a small, peace-offering smile.

“I might not stab Katelyn, but you are not of the table,” was Andrew’s bored reply. Aaron’s smile grew a little more and he nodded his head. He was starting to feel light, like maybe, just maybe, things were going to be okay. He could have a brother, like he’d wanted all along, and he could keep Katelyn like he needed.

“Okay, even though this hasn’t been the full hour, I think we’ve done a lot of work today. I think we should call it, and not try and press our luck anymore. Don’t you agree?” Betsy said kindly.

“I agree,” Aaron said. Andrew rose to his feet and started for the door without a word. He paused with his hand on the doorknob before Aaron had even grabbed his bag.

“You can walk back,” he said over his shoulder. Aaron didn’t bother arguing and watched Andrew disappear down the hall.

“Is that because I outed his relationship with Josten?” Aaron asked Betsy.

“Partly. This was also hard for him, so I think it’s less about punishment and more about giving himself time to process it.”

“Also, to find Katelyn without me able to hover,” Aaron muttered.

“Most definitely,” Betsy agreed. “Did you want to stay and talk about why you hold such resentment for Neil?”

“No,” Aaron replied, taken aback by the question. “I don’t resent him, he’s just… I don’t trust him, and I don’t want him to hurt Andrew. I don’t… he said he didn’t swing and now this,” he gestured in the direction Andrew had gone. He berated himself for talking to her one on one, breaking a promise he’d made to himself. “I’m starting to think Andrew isn’t as tough as he pretends to be.”

“He’s got a thick skin, but you’re right, I think Neil has the power to hurt him deeply. Which is a good thing, I might add,” she said. Aaron shot her a withering look.

“How is that a good thing?”

“It means he’s put himself in the position, to care and be cared about and even though it could hurt him, he’s made the choice to try. A year ago, I don’t think he would have been able to do that. Being vulnerable isn’t a curse, and for Andrew right now, it might even be a gift. I think it’d be a good thing for the both of you if you supported his relationship,” she said. Aaron cringed, which he knew looked bad, but he couldn’t help it. It wasn’t that he didn’t support Andrew’s healing or whatever the fuck was happening, or that he even had a problem with the fact that Andrew was gay. He didn’t trust Neil, that was all. He walked into the team riddled with lies and flashing his eyes at Andrew and brought the Japanese mafia and a serial killer father down on their heads, and Aaron was just supposed to like that he was sleeping with his brother? Aaron wished Andrew was screwing Kevin, at least that would have made more sense because at least Kevin was hot.

“I don’t trust him,” Aaron said quietly. He didn’t like Betsy’s calculating look, as if she was reading him better than he wanted to be read by the shrink.

“When you’re ready to talk about where your internalised homophobia stems from and how it’s effected your ability to understand your own sexuality, you know where to find me,” she said cheerily. Aaron choked on his own saliva and hated how quickly his cheeks went red.

“I’m not gay!” He squeaked.

“I didn’t say you were,” Betsy reminded him.

“B-but you said my own sexuality!” He spluttered. She steepled her fingers in front of her and studied him a little more. Aaron wanted to storm out and slam the door, but his feet were glued to the ground. His racing heart seemed to be begging him to stay, to get the answers to questions he’d never asked aloud.

“When you’re ready, Aaron, you only need to ask the questions and I will help you find the answers,” she promised him. Aaron chewed on the inside of his lip. He felt like he was shivering, but he knew he wasn’t.

“I’m not ready,” he whispered. She smiled and nodded, leaning back in the armchair.

“That’s okay,” she said gently. Aaron nodded his head slowly and let out a held breath. He had nothing else to say, so he turned to go for the long walk back across campus to Fox Tower. He didn’t acknowledge Betsy’s farewell, just dug around in his pocket for his headphones and buried his thoughts under a layer of music.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna chat I'm on Tumblr:  
> @shippinggayandallthatjazz  
> @tsc-living  
> @andrew-is-foxy
> 
> I also post book related and cosplay content on TikTok:  
> @Rae_reads


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